Method for manufacturing environmental protection insole

ABSTRACT

A method for manufacturing insole uses used footwear and recycled wooden articles are primary ingredients, which are pulverized to form particles of the recycled materials. The recycled wood, taking a ratio of weight of 15-35%, is uniformly mixed with matrix rubber that functions to adjust physical properties and foaming agent, and then pressed to form an insole material in a sheet form, which is deposited in a mold to be heated and pressurized for curing and setting thereby forming an insole featuring proper resilience and anti-bacteria and deodorization. The use of the insole is thus completely sanitary and comfortable and also features pollution- and nuisance-free use by repeated use in the sense of environment conservation.

CROSS-REFERENCE

This is a continuation-in-part of co-pending patent application Ser. No. 11/968,662, filed Jan. 3, 2008.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to a method for manufacturing an environmental protection insole, which uses used footwear and disposed wooden articles as primary ingredients that are respectively pulverized to particles of suitable sizes and added with a matrix rubber and foaming agent in predetermined ratios, followed by uniformly stirring for making an insole material having desired properties, which is afterwards subject to sheeting operation to form a sheet-like material that is deposited in a mold to be pressed and shaped and then subjected to heating and pressurizing for curing and setting to thereby provide an insole product that is intact and aesthetic, and has anti-bacteria and deodorization functions, so as to make the manufacturing of insole meeting the requirement of repeated use and pollution-free for modern commodity.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

Due to the difficulty of regeneration and limitation of natural resources, for the purposes of not accelerating damage of the natural environments, recycling for re-use of all sorts of resources attracts significant attention of the modern people, with an attempt to reduce the consumption and waste of the resources and materials. A method for manufacturing regenerated material for shoes by using disposed footwear has been proposed years ago by the present inventor in Taiwan Patent Application No. 96140643, which discloses a method for making an environmental protection shoe sole with used footwear. This known method provides an arrangement that collects used footwear when new shoes are sold, so as to greatly reduce the quantity of used footwear that is disposed of and the collected used footwear is used as a raw material for making a new shoe sole. In this way, the consumption and reliance of new material can be greatly reduced. Under the condition that the material property suits the needs, the used footwear can be resources that are repeatedly usable and a balance of supply and demand may be achieved. This known arrangement is a breakthrough of the footwear industry and can remarkably reduce the consumption and waste of materials, making the manufacturing of shoe sole complying with the requirement of environmental protection based consumption. In the field of manufacturing of shoes, a major consumption is rubber for the shoe sole, but an insole is considered a consumable part of a great quantity for shoes and has long been an item that is a focus that the development of shoe is placed on. The current development of insole is focused on health concern in respect of compliance with and contact with foot sole. Thus the trend of design in this respect is placed on using fabric or leather to provide desired resilience and softness and make comfortable contact. New material is generally the concern of selection in the development of insole. However, it is noted that selection of new material is generally against the modern trend of environmental protection. The direction of modern research in this field is to select and use recyclable and repeatedly usable materials in the sense of environmental protection for making a large quantity of material for manufacturing insoles and to provide a mode of consumption that provides comfortableness and safety and is good to the Nature by effectively reducing pollution to the environments. It is of positive value of development and research that the known method that is mentioned above for making shoe sole with used footwear is expanded to show the usefulness in the manufacturing of insoles so as to equally realize the idea of environmental protection introduced in the above-discussed known method that collects used footwear when new shoes are sold.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Based on the idea and experience of using used footwear as a material for making environmental protection shoe sole, after intensive study and research, the present inventor now propose a method for manufacturing an environmental projection insole, which uses used footwear as a material that is pulverized and combined with disposed wood material that is subject to pulverization, further added with proper amounts of matrix rubber and foaming agent for uniform mixture, making the mixture undergoing desired foaming and puffing, followed by sheeting to form a band like sheet material that is wound as a roll for storage. Afterwards, the sheet is properly shaped by being deposited in a mold, subjected to heating and pressurizing for curing and setting, to thereby form an environmental protection insole having a desired property of foaming and puffing. Thus, the insole suits the needs of environmental protection and improves the problems of the conventional insole that is of high cost and not environmentally conservative.

The purposes of the present invention are to use used footwear and disposed wood as primary ingredients that are pulverized to suitable sizes and separately processed, and further added with matrix rubber and foaming agent at proper ratios according to the properties desired for molding. After uniformly stirring, an insole molding material featuring light weight softness and flexibility, and anti-bacteria and deodorization is made, and can be subsequently molded and shaped with a mold to make a product of insole. The manufacturing of insole is thus made environmentally conservative, economic, and practicable to meet the needs of being recyclable and repeatedly usable.

The foregoing objectives and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts.

Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a method for manufacturing environmental protection insole in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following descriptions are exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

The present invention provides a method for manufacturing an environmental protection insole. The method for manufacturing an environmental protection insole is designed as a manufacturing process that uses used and discarded footwear that is collected in advance, together with recycled wood that serves as another main material, to realize an improvement of insole material in respect of weight reduction, which together with fragrance of wood, makes a mixture thereof showing deodorizing and antibacterial properties. The manufacturing method has a flow as shown in FIG. 1 and will be described as follows. Used and discarded footwear (11) are collected to serve as a source of rubber/plastic material. The footwear used in this step may include any used, broken, stained indoor/outdoor footwear, such as sports shoes, lather shoes, work shoes, leisure shoes, slippers, which are collected and recycled for use, wherein metals parts of the collected footwear (11) are removed (12) to have the metal parts separated from the rubber/plastic material. The collected footwear (11) is then deposited in a pulverization machine for crushing and pulverization (13) to become tiny particles or powders having a particle size less than 5 mmf with shape being arbitrary, which are then subjected to deodorization processing (14) and drying processing (15), in which the pulverized material is positioned in a substantially enclosed tunnel-like conveying device to carry out high temperature deodorization with high temperature steam having a temperature approximately or higher than 120° C., whereby the pulverized footwear material can be made relatively clean and odorless and then further subjected to hot air stream for drying to form uniformly pulverized environmental protection raw material (10).

The recycled wool (20) can be any recycled disposed wooden material, including all sorts of wood wastes, such as timbers of destructed buildings, panels and boards of used furniture, or wooden shoes. The wood is properly pulverized and cut (21) to make tiny particles, or powders, or flakes of a size less than 5 mmf. The recycled wood material (20), taking a ratio of 15-35% weight percentage, is mixed with the environmental protection raw material (10) that is made of the collected used footwear (11), taking a proper weight percentage, preferably 5-60%, and further added with matrix rubber (30) that is formed by mixing natural rubber, artificial rubber, additives, and filler, taking a ratio of 5-75% of the material, in accordance with the desired material properties for making insoles. The mixture is deposited in a processing machine and is further added with foaming agent (22) of 1-2% of the combined material and perfume additives (23) of minor amount, which is preferably 1-2% of bamboo vinegar solution or essence oil to provide an aromatic smell and deodorization and antibacterial functions. Processing machines are then applied to carry out stirring and mixing of all the ingredient components (31) to make them uniformly mixed. The ratio of the ingredient components is adjusted according to the properties that are desired for molding insoles, and if necessary and proper, additives of 5-10% of the total weight of the stirred raw material can be added, including crosslinking agent, promotion agent, active agent, anti-aging agent, processing aid, and rubber process oil, to facilitate stirring and dispensing of the material. This is subjected to sheeting (32) by means of planar rolling machine to form a band like material sheet for making insoles. With the assistance provided by properly added additives, the sheet is pressed to form a roll of insole material sheet to facilitate subsequent cutting, storage, and use. The sheet may have a thickness between 1-50 mm, which is determined and selected according to practical needs.

In making an insole, the stirred and sheeted material is cut to a desired size to serve as a base material, which is directly positioned in a shaping mold. Through pressing and closing of the upper and lower mold members, the base material that is set in the mold is pressed and shaped (33), forming a configuration showing a complete insole surface structure having unique raised/recessed curves. Further processing of heating pressurizing for curing and setting (34) is carried out through a hydraulic machine. Due to the assisting curing provided by additives (sulfur) contained in the mixed material and assisting activation provided by curing promotion agent, the flowability of the raw material is greatly enhanced for effectively filling the interior of a mold cavity to realize the shaping of an intact insole. A regular heating temperature for insole shaping is between 100-160° C. within a period of 4-15 minutes. The mixture ratio of the ingredient components of the material can be adjusted according to the desired physical properties for comfortableness of practical use of the insole, whereby the mixing ratio of the raw material (10), the recycled wood material (20), and the matrix rubber (30) can be adjusted and thus made different. A semi-finished product so molded is then removed out of the mold and further subjected to simple processing for edge trimming to thereby provide a complete product of environmental protection insole that features the efficacies of environmental protection, soft and flexible, and deodorization and anti-bacteria.

The manufacturing and use of the environmental protection insole in accordance with the present invention are based on such a design that uses the material of used footwear that is collected previously, combined with the use of recycled wood material (20), so that the manufacturing of the insole is characterized in complete compliance with environmental protection. Particularly, the use of and mixture with recycled wood material (20) strengthens the characteristics of environmental protection of the insole and further, with addition of a proper amount of foaming agent (22), the insole, after molded, exhibits the characteristics of possessing proper softness and flexibility and having a reduced weight to provide comfortableness of wearing. The unique characteristics of aromatic smell of wood material, which is considered a natural release of phtyoncidere, provides a natural anti-bacterial and deodorizing function when the insole is set in contact with a human foot sole. With an addition process (23) that directly adds fragrances, such as bamboo vinegar solution and essence oil, in the ingredient components, when the ingredient components are stirred and mixed (31), the minor amount of fragrances assists to make the molded insole releasing proper aromatic smell in a natural way so as to truly realize improvement of long-term effectiveness in respect of comfortableness, anti-bacteria, and deodorization. A sample of insole that is manufactured in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, in which a material of making the insole is composed of 26% raw material (10) from used footwear and 25% recycled wood material (20) that are mixed with matrix rubber (30) in a ratio of 45%, added with bamboo vinegar solution in a ratio of 1.5% to make the insole sample, has been inspected by Footwear and Recreation Technology Research Institute set up in Taiwan and a test report was issued, indicating that the sample insole is completely anti-bacterial and deodorizing. As recorded in the test report, the test was made by Footwear and Recreation Technology Research Institute for a sample received by the Institute on Aug. 5, 2009 with which the test was carried out in a period between Aug. 5, 2009 and Aug. 12, 2009 for antibacterial activity test. The report bearing a report number of (98)9808008C-A02 was issued on Aug. 13, 2009 and shows the result of “clear zone of inhibition: 2.5 mm, no growth of bacteria under the specimens.” The report confirms that during the period of test, within a given area of the insole, there is completely no propagation or sticking of bacteria. Inspection in relation to heavy metal and SVHC (Substance of Very High Concern) of European Union confirms that a product of the insole of the present invention contains no residuals of addition of heavy metals and the substances of very high concerns. This ensures that the insole of the present invention truly meets the needs of environmental protection and recycling based sustainable and cyclical use of materials and provides the efficacies of practicability, comfortableness, and safety.

In the manufacturing of the present invention, the material used include a substantial amount of used footwear and wood products, showing the characteristics of environmental protection for repeated and cyclic use of material. Although matrix rubber (30) is added for mixture, it just plays a role of adjusting the physical properties of molded insoles, and the ratio of the matrix rubber is adjusted according to the practical needs and uses. More importantly, the insole product made in accordance with the present invention can be recycled for further use in a manner of cyclic use to thereby realize an environmental protection material of endless regeneration and repeated use, making the manufacture of insole a virtually totally pollution free way of use of materials. Further, with the enhancement made by foaming, the properties of the insole can be made to completely meet the needs of comfortableness of soft and resilient contact with foot sole and reduction of weight. The novel process of manufacturing insole truly provides practical efficacies and industrial values and the insole so manufactured is completely novel in view of products of this type.

To summarize, the method for manufacturing an environmental protection insole in accordance with the present invention uses used footwear and disposed wooden articles as primary ingredients, which are pulverized and then mixed and are added with a proper amount of matrix rubber for adjustment for molding. Proper amounts of foaming agent and fragrances may also be added. In this way, the material of the molded insole in accordance with the present invention can be cyclically used. Further, the insole of the present invention shows characteristics of anti-bacteria and deodorization, light-weight, soft and flexible, and comfort, and features the unique nature of environmental protection and practicability.

While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention. 

1. A method for manufacturing insole, comprising mixing a raw material that is made of used footwear and matrix rubber to form a mixture and subjecting the mixture to depositing in a mold for shaping, curing and setting, and edge trimming, characterized in that used wooden material is pulverized to form particles and flakes having a size less than 5 mmf and mix, at a ratio of weight of 15-35%, with tiny particles that is formed by pulverizing the used footwear, which takes a ratio of 5-60%, and further added with the matrix rubber taking a ratio of 5-75%, and afterwards, deposited in a processing machine and further added with a predetermined amount of foaming agent, followed by uniformly stirring with the processing machine and subsequently subjected to sheeting, the sheet being then molded and shaped by being pressed by closing an insole mold and heated and pressurized inside the mold for curing and setting, whereby an insole having proper softness and flexibility and featuring anti-bacterial and deodorizing functions is obtained.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of mixing, fragrance is added, including a bamboo vinegar solution or essence oil that is added in a ratio of 1-2% to assist anti-bacteria and aromatic smell.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the matrix rubber comprises a combination of natural rubber, artificial rubber, filler, additives, and process oil in predetermined ratios.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein a sheet obtained through the sheeting operation has a thickness of 1-50 mm.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the foaming agent is added with a ratio of 1-2% of the mixed material. 